I purchased a used RMP Multiface I with HDSP PCI rev 1.7.

I installed the card on my system: CPU intel E6600, motherboard D975XBX2, no other soundcards, Windows XP SP2 - 32bit with the lastest drivers and everything was fine.
the PCI Card is OK, i can open the settingd panel and the mix panel.
settings panel (About) says i'm on firmware v.17 (the last for a rev 1.7 pci card so no need to flash a new one),
but settings panel (Multiface 1) say "error" on I/O box state and Multiface external box don't work.

the box has a solid red light (Host/error) and there's no way to get it recognized by the system.
i tried two working firewire cables (about 1,5 meter long) with same results.

it seems to be the seller sent me a faulty card but here's the strange part...

i contacted the seller and he assure me it's a driver problem. to confirm this he sayd that he had the same problem last year (solid host error light - june 2012), he sent the cards and the box to Midiware (italian reseller and assistance for RME) and the result was the card and the box where both fine. so when he received the items he provide a clean PC install and all was working fine.

this is confirmed word by words by midiware that sent me the assistance report. (i double checked the serial number of the cards to confirm the ones i got are the same of the report).

so i made a clean install of my system but no luck, same issue... so sequentially i tried this:

-changing drivers
-falshing HDSP PCI card again (same version 17 - operation success - but no results in Multiface recognizing)
-every reboot was made with a complete poweroff, then unplugged the power cord for a couple of minutes before get the power on again
-adding an external working power supply, 12v 2A for multiface box
-changin fireware cable again
-change PCI slot
-clean gold PCI cards contacts with rubber
-change entirely the computer (P4 3ghz - intel 865 motherboard, no other soundcards) and make a clean install with Win XP Sp2 - 32 bit
-changing operating system to windows 7 - 32 bit, clean install.

the result is the same. driver are ok, i can access to panel settings and mix control. but I/O box error.

now i have a copule of question to understand the problem:
when i power up the multiface the host/error led is solid. i read somewere it must blinking (not solid) on a simple power on with no cable connected or pc off.
my hdsp card had a "multiface" tab in the panel settings even if the multiface is not connected. i read somewere that the standard external board is "digiface" when nothing is connected. so how is it possible?

another strange thing is when you power up the board (external power or cable) the red light is not so brilliant as after a cople of minutes. it seems to need time to become "hot" but i never see something for a led light; could it be related to some internal power failure?